Things that are on my mind, working on or just flat out love.

Those of you who know me at all definitely can confirm that I am quite the Nerd. So when I am cruising my Flipboard at an undisclosed location I have been known to run across some pretty interesting articles, news stories and blog post. This past week I found two that I thought to be pretty interesting. The first article is from Popular Science and suggestion that evolution punishes selfish people in the long run. It talks about game theory which is something that is captivating to me in itself. Although I am not sure that evolution punishes anything at all I do know that being selfish is never good and it in fact will catch up with you eventually from small to big things in life. Even if you can’t acknowledge what those things are at times. Anyway, have a read…

The second article talks about how gamers, especially FPS fans, are impulsive aggressive behavior. I could see it and I think the article is pretty interesting. Try to relate myself to these posts as I read them and sometimes can relate and see where they are coming from. I think the big one on this is the time spent playing thee types of games. The lack of thought that sometimes comes with a decision. I would be interesting in learning more about how they tested these people as I don’t feel like that much light was shed on that portion of things. I know that certain decisions just don’t take a lot of thought both in regards to possible outcomes and or consequences where others I would be much more calculated. Have a look at the article from the Telegraph and hit me with comments below.

I don’t really spend a ton of time following the news and my engagement is limited. However when I am in the know it is almost solely thanks to my phone and a popular app called Flipboard of which I highly recommend. I really enjoyed one of the articles I stumbled upon as of late as it had a few different items that were just interesting. The helicopter challenge in particular was quite engaging. Have a look at the original article that appeared on Popsci.com titled…

Yesterday we hit the road and headed for Grand Lake. A common destination when I was a child and for that matter all through high school and even after. I have been fortunate enough to have the chance to come up here for my entire 31 years of life and it has been an amazing blessing and a great time to share time with the family and friends. Emily and I are fortunate and blessed to have jobs that only require the internet so we packed up the boys, the dog, an angry cat and three weeks of stuff and headed out the door. We hope to enjoy all that the area offers including hiking, swimming (kind of, the water is super cold), hot sulfur springs, horses, Rocky Mountain National Park, Trail Ridge Road, a variety of lakes and more.

We kicked things off yesterday with a great drive up followed by a quick trip into town to the candy shop and playground. Some really good friends just happen to be in the area and we were able to extend a place to sleep and had the chance to grab some quick fellowship which has been awesome. They will take off today and then we are on our own till the next visitors arrive.

Looking forward to making some awesome memories with the boys and Emily! Here are a few shots that I took yesterday!

Many times over the years I have looked at driving to different locations as a pennies on the dollar type of situation. However, recently my wife and I made a special errand and somehow started talking about the cost of driving places. This might be because we own an SUV that weighs as much as the Titanic and our wallet certainly has paid a similar fate as the Titanic due to craptastic gas mileage our vehicle gets (and yes, it’s our own fault!). My wife and I are both avid coffee drinkers and although we don’t consider Starbucks the best coffee out there by any means we do consider it a consistent alternative since we cannot make the trip to Crema or Happy coffee in Denver very often. This past year we moved out to what most city folks would consider to be the middle of nowhere. The closest shopping center is five miles from our house but once you are there you have access to pretty much anything you would want. It was decided the other day that we would take a quick Starbucks run for my wife’s birthday. So we mounted up and headed to the closest drive through Starbucks. There is actually a walk-in Starbucks at the five mile mark but we were interested in getting a little bit of a drive in as well as try and get our two and half year old son to take a nap. The car is apparently a magical place for him.

As we pulled up to the window at Starbucks to pay for our snooty caramel macchiato’s we wondered, how much did these coffees cost us with travel and all? Well you are about to find out and to be honest, it is crazy!

So here is the math for you. Starbucks is 8.2 miles from our house (shame on us for requiring a drive through. First world problem and snobbery anf coffee snobbery at it’s best).

I did some quick calculations and figured out that it basically cost us a whopping $0.28 cents a mile to drive our beast around town. We average about 14mpg. That is terrible, but dang this thing is sweet in the snow!

So at 8.2 miles that puts us at a 16.4 mile round trip and therefore put the cost of just driving to Starbucks $4.59 plus the cost of our coffees. That my friends is pure insanity. We have sense been having conversations about how we can drive less. Use the other car more and maybe even get a different car with better mileage. The next time you are standing at the store wondering if you should drive to the next place and you think, it may cost me more to drive there than if I bought it here, that statement could be entirely true. Especially if you drive a tank.

I did the math on a few other cars to see how much is would cost to drive them to Starbucks. Here are the results…

Saab 2004 9-3 Linear – $2.46 ($0.15 per mile – This is our other car and probably a better choice for those one off quick trips)Toyota Prius – $1.47 ($0.09 per mile to drive)Ford Fusion Hybrid – $1.31 ($0.08 per mile to drive)

So why don’t we get another car you ask? As mentioned we have thought about this and it is still on the table although we have other ideas as well. One of the reasons we bought this particular vehicle was third row seats for that day when Emily finds out she is pregnant and we need that extra room. Also as discussed that thing is a tank and I feel pretty bad for anything that hits us or we hit. The safety of it both on an average day and in the snow is something that at least helps me justify the cost. Maybe not the best excuse but certainly a factor. If you are wondering how you can determine the cost of driving per mile just follow this simple formula…

Cost of a tank of gas ÷ Total miles per tank = Cost per mile

Now pick a place or three that you drive to on a regular basis and get ready to be depressed. Have a great day!

Dude, buy a Prius. Clearly this guy is insane. I am not sure that this is the best idea but it seems like the energy savings are probably high while the distance achieved reaches a maximum. Anyway, once of the craziest things that I have seen in a while. Enjoy!

This is a great little video showing a pretty amazing comparison and lap between three of the best drivers/riders in their respective series or former series within the top machines. It blows my mind the difference that downforce plays in such and experiment. Think about the contact patch difference between the F1 car and the Moto GP bike. We could be talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of ten times or more the contact patch. Pretty incredible and entertaining stuff.

If you are anything like me then once in a while you get sucked into Youtube. Sometimes I find people doing amazing things and other times I find people doing amazingly dumb things. I am not sure which category this falls in to but I was highly entertained and thought the visuals were quite impressive. Have a look and enjoy! While you do that I will try and go find some more amazing videos or get distracted by videos of people falling or new anchors messing it up on live TV. Darn it youtube… why do you have to be like that?

I have been blessed and fortunate to always have amazing men of God in my life both as peer to peer friends and as mentors, leaders or teachers. This trend continues and the last two years have brought the chance to become friends, brothers and business partners with a few of these men in particular. This past half year especially since starting my own business I have also had the pleasure of being challenged by my two business partners daily from spiritual perspective or angle. In light of where I am at right now with the my walk it has been one of the most amazing, overwhelming, exciting and frustrating times in my life. I feel more excited about pursuing the Lord and pressing deep into his Word as well as time with him than I have in recent years. I consider this a huge blessing as so many days and times in my life I have found myself quite distracted with my drive and attention focused on other things. I am still not nearly perfect nor where I want to be in terms of time management and focus but I feel that shift taking place again which is an awesome and exciting. It is also comes as a huge challenge.

If you have read the blog… (I know your out there.. Mom, is that you? Ok, maybe this is just more of an outlet for me )… then you know that I have been on this whole kick of reading the Bible with a fresh perspective idea. I have been enjoying it immensely but it is also slow going. Well, I found a few more ways to make it even slower. This is ok and actually reminded me of something I learned once while providing worship for a summer camp in Nebraska with the Foolish Things (the band I used to play drums for). We had the opportunity to hear from a speaker named Jeremy Kingsley and one of the things he always told the kids was that you read the Bible to change, not to finish. That has stuck with me for a lot of years. Although I think a complete understanding and picture of the Bible is very important if you are only reading to gain that overview or knowledge but not to change your life or obey what it says then is there really any point in reading it? That being said, although things are slow going I think the importance behind reading the Word and truly trying to gain and understanding and grasp on what it is I believe is a huge deal and huge adventure. Knowing Christ and doing what he says is the end game and goal in it all.

Ok, so back to the things that are making this adventure a little bit slower but better for me. I have been introduced to a few new resources over the past few months and I would like to toss them out there and share them for you as they have brought some major challenge to my thinking as well as complicated and/or made my study of the word more exciting. Some quick background on how I came across some of the resources. One of my now best friends and business partners is what I am calling, and I may butcher this, a Torah believing Christian. My other partner is actually pretty much the same or really close behind in the same line of thinking and living. Although labels suck and I am not probably representing their journey perfectly it is the best and quickest way to touch on where they are coming from without me or them giving you a few hour tour of where God has taken them on that journey. One of the things that comes along with this is a that they celebrate and honor all the festivals, honor sabbath, etc. Very cool to see in action and very cool to start to take part in on many levels. I am learning a ton and being challenged daily as mentioned. Obviously I had and have a ton of questions and have been asking them. They have been very gracious to share in a very raw format where they are at and how they came to it. They have also sent some awesome resources along the way that I swear at some point in this post I will stop talking about and actually post. We have had email after email of great dialog and passing of information. in fact I think I have enough email to keep me busy for a few years in terms of studying things out. There is absolutely no pressure from them for me to agree with or be on the same page as them although the challenge to read and pray through the Bible is constant and something they and I get quite excited about.

So finally, for some of the resources mentioned.

One of the first things that I watched and found myself quite connected to and interested in was a video called A History of Hebrew: Its Langauge and Philosophy. You can watch the full video in short clips that have been put into a playlist on Youtube here… http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0E346CF634AD0E30 The whole playlist is about an hour and thirty minutes and quite interesting. I think I landed on that from a link that my partner Andrew had sent after we were talking about the original text and language. He had sent me to the the Ancient Hebrew Research Center which is one of the sites that Jeff Benner(the creatore of the video) runs and created. He has a bunch of great resources and items on there including a course that you can take on ancient Hebrew. I think the videos were part of assignment one. I am waiting on access to assignment two still.

I also ended up purchasing one of Jeff Benner’s books on Kindle for $5 titled The LIving Words – Volume 1. It has been quite good and interesting. I am still working out going back through and really confirming all that is being said and taught. Some pretty crazy stuff to be honest. I will probably post about it in the future at some point.

One of the other resources that I have been enjoying is the Skip Moen’s blog. He post daily on a Hebrew or Greek word and where it came from and what it means. Does quick and consumable thoughts and teaching on these words. I also signed up for his 30 day newsletter series called… Thirty Days of The Hebrew Worldview. It has been captivating thus far and I have enjoyed it a ton.

I am still at the beginning of my journey with a lot of this stuff and a bit weary of some of it but I think that is healthy. I think an area where I have struggled in the past is that it is easy to take someone else’s word for something without really studying it out for yourself. Really understand what is being said and then acting accordingly. That is one of my huge goals as I move forward in my studies. Bottom line is that I want to know the Lord better and then do what he says not matter how hard or easy. I don’t want to throw something out because it does not fit my life or because a certain person did or didn’t say it or endorse it. Time to really understand what I believe. Time to dig deep. It is not an easy thing to do. It is time consuming, exciting, overwhelming and frustrating all wrapped into one.

As so many people have said in the past. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it. Don’t get me wrong… I still wish it was easier most of the time.

If you are interested in seeing where this set of blog posts all started then read the other posts that I have written on the idea of Approaching the Bible w/ a Fresh Perspective…

As some of you know I have been slowly working my way through the whole Bible and doing it from a fresh perspective. Trying to approach it from fresh eyes while not impressing anything that I have know or think I know on it. Trying to gain the experience of reading it through for the first time again. It has been a challenge. It has been slow thus far and it only increases in challenge as new ideas and thoughts have been introduced in my journey over the past few months. More on that in a later post. But for now I just wanted to take the time to post the notes that I have taken thus far on Exodus. The majority of these are just a reiteration of the verses that I read and usually typed out word for word of the version that I had been reading from, which is typically NASB. Once in a while there are questions of thoughts sprinkled in but not many.

Here are my notes for the first part of Exodus. This is more for person reference than anything else. Not really trying to make a statement, show off or be weird. Just trying to share what I have been reading through.

Exodus Bible Reading Notes

Chapter 1

Introduction includes a list of the sons that moved to Egypt with and under Jacob when he was alive. Joseph was obviously already there. A new King and Pharaoh took over after time, one that did not know of Joseph. He saw the Israelites/Hebrews and saw their numbers. They had multiplied greatly and he was worried that they would partner with an enemy and take them over. He made them into slaves and they built storage cities. There lives were bitter with hard labor.

Pharaoh spoke to the midwives and asked that if they delivered baby boys that they would be killed, but baby girls were allowed to be kept. But the midwives feared God and didn’t obey and kept all the children alive upon birth. Pharaoh asked why and they told him that the Hebrew women would not wait for them to come and just give birth without the midwives present.

By the end of the chapter there was an official law stating that all male children be thrown into the Nile river.

Chapter 2

A man from the house of Levi married a daughter of the house of Levi. They conceived a little boy of which they hid for three months. When she could not hide him anymore she got him a wicker basket and floated him down the Nile. His sister followed from a distance to see what would happen.

Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby and had pity on him. She had them find a nursing mother amongst the Hebrew women. It was the boys mother. She nursed him and received wages for it. Pretty cool story. Pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses because she drew him out of the water.

When Moses was older he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He looked about and saw no one was around and struck the Hebrew dead. The next day he saw some of his fellow Hebrew brothers fighting. He told them to stop and they shot back with, “why? are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian.” Word obviously got out and Moses was afraid.

Pharaoh heard of the matter and tried to kill Moses but he fled to MIdian. The priest of Midian had seven daughters. He helped them at the well that he had been resting by or found. He helped them by driving away the shepherds and the daughter returned to their fathers earlier than normal that day. Moses had helped them water the flock. The priest asked his daughters why they had not brought the man back to give him something to eat. He fetched Moses and Moses ended up staying with them. The priest gave him his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son and they named him Gershom.

The King of Egypt died and the sons of Israel cried out to God. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel and took notice of them.

Chapter 3

While Moses was shepherding sheep near Horeb the mountain of God. God appeared to him in a blazing fire amidst a bush. Moses looked and saw the bush was not burning up. God called to him from the bush and told him he was standing on holy ground. Moses hid his face as he was afraid to look at God. God told Moses that he has seen and heard the affliction of his people in Egypt. He told him that he has come to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them into the land of Canaan. He told Moses to come and that he would be the one to bring his people from Egypt to the land. Moses said, “who am I to bring them out.” The Lord said that he would and would bring them to this mountain. Moses asked what he should say to the Israelites, who sent them. God told him to tell them the I AM has sent Moses.

I AM (strongs 1961 Ha-ya)

to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out

God was telling Moses that this was his Memorial-name to all generations and that it is his name forever.

Moses was to to go to the elders of Israel and tell them what the Lord had said. That he understood their afflictions and that they would be delivered into the land of milk and honey, Canaan. They would then listen to Moses and Moses and the Elders would go up to the King of Egypt together and ask that they be released on three day travel to go sacrifice to the Lord. However, the King will not let you the people go except under compulsion or a mighty hand. The Lord told him that he would stretch his hand against them with various miracles. After that he would let the people go, but after they plundered Egypt. They would walk away with gold, silver, articles of clothing, etc.

Note: Was listening to Steve Gregg the other day and it has been thought that maybe that this is how the Israelites even became armed. After the Egyptians drowned when chasing them.

Chapter 4

Moses was worried that when he went into Egypt that the Israelites would not listen to him. God then told Moses to throw his staff on the ground, upon doing so the staff turned into a snake. Moses was afraid and ran from it but the Lord told him to pick it up by it’s tail. It then turned back into a staff. The Lord also told him to put his hand into his bosom and when he pulled it out his hand was full of leprosy and when he put it back in and looked again it was completely healed. The Lord said if they still do not believe pour a cup of water from the Nile on the ground and it will turn into blood.

Moses then became concerned about his ability to speak. The Lord told him that he was the creator of his mouth and controls if one is mute or deaf. He told Moses he would be with his mouth and teach him what to say but Moses was still hesitant and wanted another to be the messenger.

vs. 14
The Lord was angry with Moses probably due to his lack of faith. He told him that he would use Aaron his brother and a Levite.

vs. 16
This is interesting. It says that Aaron would speak for Moses to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as a God to him.

What the heck does that even mean?

When Moses headed back to Egypt the Lord told him that he must perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that have been put in Moses’ power. But God would harden Pharaoh’s heart and not let the people go. Then Moses would say to Pharaoh, “Thus say the Lord, Israel is my son. My firstborn. So I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.”

Kind of a hardcore prophecy.

vs 24-26… seems out of place. What is going on here. There is circumcinob stuff going on. Sounds like with Moses wife and maybe a son? Bridegroom of blood to me? What is she talking about.

Aaron was then sent to Moses as the Lord mentioned and he helped communicate all the Moses had heard from the Lord to the elders of Israel. Aaron spoke the words and Moses performed the signs. The people believed and when they heard that the Lord had heard their cry they bowed before them.

Chapter 5

1-3
Moses and Aaron request the release of the people by request of the Lord so that they might go and have a feast in the wilderness. Pharaoh denies them this and states he does not know the Lord.

4-9
Moses and Aaron again request three days to go celebrate the festival in the wilderness but Pharaoh denies them and gets frustrated that work would cease. He then actually makes the work harder by making the people gather there own straw. He does not change the quota of bricks to be made and says that the people must be lazy and have too much time if they are able to cry out to God. He made the work worse so that they would not pay attention to the “false words” from Moses and Aaron.

10-14
The taskmasters implemented the request of Pharaoh and did not supply the straw. The people scattered throughout Egypt looking for stubble and straw. They were not making their quotas. The taskmasters were getting on them about it.

15-21
The foreman of the sons of Israel approached Pharaoh and told them they did not have what they needed to meet the quota but Pharaoh called them lazy and said that they had time to request festival time in the wilderness. The foreman saw they were in trouble. The people then went to Moses and Aaron and told them that what they were doing was making them odious in the sight of Pharaoh. That they had put a sword in the hand of the Egyptians to kill them.

22-23
Moses went to the Lord in concern and asked why he was ever sent as the people had only been harmed since he had arrived according to Moses.

Chapter 6

2-3
Interesting verses here that I am not sure that I understand. The Lord is telling Moses that he revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the God Almighty, but by His name, Lord, He did not make himself known to them. This is right after he tells Moses in verse 1 that he will make Pharaoh let the people go out of compulsion.

God then goes on to have Moses tell the people that He will be taking them out of the land as promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The people don’t believe Moses though because of the great bondage they are in.

The chapter then talks of all the sons of the heads of Israel. Moses was still freaked to talk to Pharaoh and not confident in his speaking ability. Kept on doubting his ability and his speaking and therefore was not confident in God for it.

Chapter 7

God tells Moses that he will make him like a God to Pharaoh and use him and Aaron to show Pharaoh his power. However his heart would be hard and he would not release the people so God would bring his hand against Egypt because of it. They met with Pharaoh and when he asked them to, ‘Work a miracle’ they were to throw their staff down and it would turn into a snake. Pharaoh called his wise men and sorcerers and they did the same thing, however the snake from Aaron’s staff ate and swallowed up the Egyptian snakes.

Next the Lord told Aaron and Moses to meet Pharaoh on his way to the nile and ask about releasing people again of which he refused. They then told him that they would turn the nile into a river of blood. Pharaoh rejected them again due to his hard heart and they did as they mentioned they would and turned the Nile into blood. However, again the Egyptian sorcerers found a way to copy that and Pharaoh’s heart remained hard and he had no worry about this. Although his people had to dig up water rather than use the Nile.

Chapter 8

Some more back and forth between Pharaoh and Aaron and Moses. First the plague of frogs. Second the plague of insects. Specifically gnats. The gnats could not be reproduced by the magicians of Egypt.

Chapter 9

Even more plagues. All the Egyptian livestock dies but none of Israel’s. Moses and Aaron throw soot up in the air in the presence of Pharaoh and a plague of boils and sores casts across Egypt. Next comes the giant hail storm that essentially wipes out the Egyptian crop and kills anyone who is not indoors. However the land of Goshen where the Israelites live is not touched by the hail.

Chapter 10

Here comes the locust. They will eat anything left over after the hail. They will eat all the trees and then they will be all over and in your houses. The slaves of Pharaoh were getting restless and frustrated that they continued to be afflicted by Aaron and Moses without Pharaoh giving the Israelites what they wanted. The Egyptians were then plagued with darkness for three days. However after all that has gone on the Lord continued to harden Pharaoh’s heart and he would not let the people go.

10:28-29
Then Pharaoh said, “Get away from me! Beware, do not see my face again, for in the day you see my face, you shall die.” Moses said, “You are right; I shall never see your face again.”

Chapter 11

So the Lord was going to bring one more plague on Egypt and its people. But before doing so he told the Israelites that they would be driven out completely and that he would give them favor. So they were to ask their neighbors for gold and silver. The Egyptians looked on the Israelites with favor. Moses shared what the Lord had told him that the Lord would go out around midnight and kill all the firstborn. Traditionally I think people have this attached to babies for some reason, at least I did, but after reading it again and hearing Steve Gregg talk about it in some of his verse by verse I now understand that this could be any age and really it could be male and female as well. Families might find themselves with multiple losses if a Father and son were both first born. Obviously there would be a great cry in Egypt from this plague or event.

Chapter 12

The Lord begin to establish the calendar and some traditions with the Israelites. He said…

this month shall be the beginning of the year for you; the first month of the year
on the tenth day of the month everyone is to take a lamb for themselves according to their Fathers households.
if the household is too small then they are to share with a neighbor
divide the lamb against all those who will eat
Lamb shall be unblemished male a year old
can be taken from sheep or goats
You shall keep it till the 14th day then the whole assembly of Israel is to kill it at twilight
They are to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the two door post and lintel of the house in which they eat the lamb
they shall eat the flesh that same night burned roasted with fire
they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs
Don’t eat it raw or boiled with water but again with roasted fire and with its head, legs and entrails.
Don’t leave any till morning and if you do then you shall burn it
You shall eat in this manner with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You shall eat in haste – It is the Lord’s passover.

The Lord would then go through Egypt and kill the firstborn as mentioned in chapter 11. However when he sees the blood on the house doors he would pass over these homes.

12:14 – One of the catalyst for the study that I am doing on the festivals. It is an interesting area. I don’t know who it applies to. Anybody who reads? Is he talking solely to the Israelites? Do we fall under the part where it says, “throughout your generations”? Is this revoked by something that Jesus does in the new covenant?

It then gives a rundown of all that was asked of the Israelites during that time starting at verse 15.

15 – Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day removing all leaven from you home. Whoever eats leaven will be cut off from Israel.

16 – On the first and seventh day there is a holy assembly. No work must be done except what must be eaten by every person. That work and preparation can be done.

17 – You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened bread for it was the day that the Lord brought you out Egypt. Or would bring them out of Egypt. Again it mentioned that they shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.

18-20 – Starting to get into the specifics of the requirements that The Lord is asking. First month, 14th day till the 21st day of the month at evening. They shall eat unleaved bread. No leaven in within houses or dwellings. Whoever eats leaven shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel whether native or alien of the land.

21-28 Passover is created and the command is to take passover lamb for your family and slay it. Then take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood and apply to the door posts and the lintel. None shall go outside until morning. The Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians but will passover homes with the blood on the doorposts and lintel.

vs. 24 talks about observing this forever again. Word study on forever in light of what you have learned about the Hebrew culture and concrete vs .abstract thought. What about how ancient Hebrews thought about the future and the past? How does it interact with the hebrew word for “forever”?

… looked at it a little bit last night and it seems like it means forever. However it seems to appear as two words in the Hebrew if I am understanding things properly here. H5704 and H5769. Need to learn a little more about how to determine the actual original meaning. I still think there is something here in terms of how Hebrew thought would approach this passage.

Some thoughts about lintels. Was reading the wiki page and it was defining the lintel as follows… A lintel can be a load-bearing building component, a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. It is often found over portals, doors, windows, and fireplaces.

Interesting how from an architectural standpoint that the lintel has load-bearing properties. How does that relate to the passage? Does it? Maybe just a cool coincidence.

29-32
At midnight the Lord struck at the first born throughout the land of Egypt. From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the captive in the dungeon. First born cattle, etc. There was no home where someone had not died. Pharaoh called Aaron and Moses and told them to gather the people and leave.

vs. 32 Pharaoh tells them to take both flocks and herds and go and “bless me also”. Is Pharaoh asking for a blessing from these guys and the Lord here? Seems kind of intense and out of place.

I listened to Steve Gregg on this passage not too long ago and he brought even more light to the situation. When you really sit back to read and think about what it means to have the firstborn of all killed it is a pretty huge and deal. A family could lose multiple people that night. A firstborn Father and then son. I doubt that it was limited to just men and it clearly stated that at least the cattle were affected. We are talking about a massive amount of death in a single place.

Steve was also talking about how the blood on the doorposts and lintel was not only an option for the Israelite or Hebrew but for Egyptians as well. If they overheard they could have done the same thing to their doors and been passed over. There were probably a lot of converts to the Lord during the time of the plague so why would that be limited to only the Israelites.

33-36
The Egyptians urged the people to leave in haste. So the people took their dough before it was leavened with their kneading bowls bound up in the cloths on their shoulders.
Just as Moses had said they asked the Egyptians for articles of gold, silver and clothing and therefore plundered Egypt.

37-41
They left Egypt and traveled from Rameses to Succoth. 600,000 men on foot, aside from children. A mixed multitude also went up with them… is that in the 600k number? They traveled with flocks, herds, etc. They baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt. The Israelites lived in Egypt 430 years to the day. Wonder what if any significance that number has?

42-51
It is a night to be observed for the LORD for having brought them out of Egypt. The night is obviously the passover night. Should be observed throughout all the generations.

The ordinance of the passover…

no foreigner is to eat of it, but every mans slave purchased with money after circumcison can eat of it
A sojourner or hired servant shall not eat of it
Is to be eaten by a single house
you are not to bring forth any flesh outside of the house, nor break any bone of it
All congregations of Israel are to celebrate this.
All males must be circumcised and not uncircumcised person may eat of it

Chapter 13

vs. 13 – A mention of the Law of the LORD being on the the peoples mouth after they had left Egypt. This is clearly before the ten commandments were given. So I guess something to note is what commands and laws had been given to the people up till now. The other thing to remember is that the Law is not solely the Ten commandments although in my head many times I associate and think this way for some reason.
13:2 The Lord said to sanctify to Him every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both man and beast; belongs to God.

13:3 Moses told the people to remember this day. The day the Lord brought you out of Egypt. Nothing leavened shall be eaten.

13:4 This day in the month of Abib. What is the month of Abib and what is the day they is being referred to here?

http://www.karaite-korner.org/abib.shtml

Excerpt from above…

The Biblical year begins with the first New Moon after the barley in Israel reaches the stage in its ripeness called Abib. The period between one year and the next is either 12 or 13 lunar months. Because of this, it is important to check the state of the Barley crops at the end of the 12th month. If the barley is Abib at this time, then the following New Moon is Hodesh Ha-Aviv (“New Moon of the Abib”). If the barley is still immature, we must wait another month and then check the barley again at the end of the 13th month.

By convention, a 12-month year is referred to as a Regular Year while a 13th month year is referred to as a Leap Year. This should not be confused with Leap Years in the Gregorian (Christian) Calendar, which involve the “intercalation” (addition) of a single day (Feb. 29). In contrast, the Biblical Leap Year involves the intercalation of an entire lunar month (“Thirteenth Month”, also called “Adar Bet”). In general, it can only be determined whether a year is a Leap Year a few days before the end of the 12th Month.

Kind of stuck in my note taking. Not sure if I am just tired today or not understanding what is being said in these verses. 13:5-7 or so.

Talks about not eating bread with leaven quite a bit in the few verses here in a row. Then it moves into talking about after the seven days in which people were not to eat bread.

13:9
It… the feast? Shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a powerful the LORD brought you out of Egypt.

13:10
Therefore you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year.

13:11-13
Once brought into Canaan the Israelites were to devote to the LORD the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the LORD.

Every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you don’t redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man amroun your sons you shall redeem.

The word “devote” or Abar or A-var. H5674… should be more something like pass over or carry over.

One of my favorite racing series of all time got back in the saddle this past weekend. Australian V8 Supercars launched their season with the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide this past weekend. Have a look at a quick video to get your juices flowing…

Also, props on the new website. Looks good and I like a lot of the new functionality.

Anybody that knows me know that I am a huge motorsports fan and that does not exclude Nascar, although everyone keeps telling me it should. What do they know. In fact Nascar was originally where I found my love for racing, left turns and all things hill billy. Anyway, if you missed this past weekends race at Phoenix it was a good one and a popular win as Carl Edwards found himself back in victory lane. The guy is just so darn nice. I like it. Anyway, have a look at the top five video from Nascar.com from this past week. Kevin from the office even chimes in with an enthusiastic gentlemen start your engines. Get your left turn appreciation on in less than five minutes vs four hours… and go!